Tincup asks about Twitter

I recently hosted a hangout on being a Twitter stalker (Recruiter Edition.) for Colleague. My friend William Tincup
posted some questions to answer in the session, but I didn’t get a chance to answer them all. They are great questions, so here goes:

- Can you / should you use Twitter Ads to source / brand?

Twitter ads and promoted tweets are very effective for drviing traffic, but have the highest bounce rate. Twitter has the most curious clickers, who go to look at something because it is vaguely interesting, only to discover it is not what they thought. Twitter is largely for down time browsers, and about 90% on mobile. Ads are effective provided you consider:

Where you are taking people, and if possible keep them in channel

A destination that is a clear, simple landing page, built for mobile, with a very easy call to action. You need to view this on twitter/tweetdeck to test it, on an i-phone or mobile device.

Any call to action or sign up needs to be one click, enabling a twitter sign in.

Content needs to be very relevant with a clear message

Links in the middle of a tweet get 5 times more clicks. Don’t know why but they do. I have tested this many times.- Your thoughts on protected accounts…,

Its like going to a networking event in disguise. Private is for e-mail, and nothing is secret. If I want to see your protected tweets, I can, and it is never that interesting. No one is that exciting that I’m going to follow them just to see their tweets. get a life.- Language translation via Twitter… thoughts on sourcing in a different language…

Normal users tweet in their own language. You want to find them, you need to search in the native language for the geekwords. You want to find people in conversation, because that is how you identify them. Not by their bios.Google and twitter translate is a different language, just not the one you are looking for!

Link to where you want people to connect, and the landing place you want people to see. No point linking to the default twitter, because you were already found there. Some directory apps like Twollow will automaticaly change your bio to that destination. Check this and change it back to where you want them to go.

– If someone is looking for a job, should they list that in their Twitter bio?

Is this a real question? If you are in a job, you probably want to keep it a secret, though you need to make sure you are easy to find in search by skills, employer and job. Thats what recruiters search for on the whole, and is rarely in a bio when you are not looking. If you are out of work, every social profile should state what you are looking for, and link to an on-line resume. The advice that you look desperate is BS. You probably are desperate, and hungry. People respect the pro-active. You are not in transition, you are out of work!

– How important are Twitter chats for finding talent?

Only if you are hiring recruiters, consultants or vendors. # streams around events that are industry specific, prove far more useful, along with searching for industry terms in tweets.

– Should folks have the same profile pic in Twitter as they have in LinkedIn?

I do, because I think recognition is important, and your picture should stand out in some way. I wear a yellow shirt, because you can easily spot me. I don’t buy in to the big head, face thing, because those avatars look like politicians, and everyone hates politicians.Deffinitely don’t put your chin on your hand or you will look slimey.

Can you source Twitter IDs from LinkedIn (and/or Facebook)?

40% of LinkedIn profiles have a Twitter name, and 35% of Facebook profiles. If people don’t know you they are far more likely to engage with you on Twitter than either of the other channels. Twitter was built for talking to strangers, and it is where most on-line relationships start. Sourcing from LinkedIn to build a twitter list will give your lists relevance. This is important.

– Thoughts on unfollowing folks that don’t follow you back…

Petulant and stupid. Follow people who interest you. Lists are far more important than followers/following because you can segment content, people and conversations by group, embeding lists in to the columns in tweetdeck or hootsuite.Only unfollow people who spam you or are annoying. I worry about my followers not my unfollowers. If I unfollow you, please don’t message me to ask why.

If it is your favourite, why not, it gives that tweet greater visibility. favouriting someones tweet also gets you noticed by them. Don’t, however, favourite your own tweet, or people saying good things about you, because you look like a C+ck.

Favouriting tweets says a lot about your interests, similar to likes on Facebook. The real benefit though is that your favourite, retweeted tweets or opened links helps Twitter to build a profile of who you are, along with your Klout topic word cloud. This drives the recommended follow engine in Twitter, that suggests you to new users, or to people with similar interests. What you share, open and favourite will shape your potential following, that’s why recruiters mostly get followed by recruiters.

Thanks for your questions William. Any others from anyone fire them in. If you don’t follow
@WilliamTincup, put him on your list.